Chapter
18
—
The Monetary
From
the preceding chapters, it may be posited that, to correct the economic
system and to put production at the service of consumers, there is no
need at all to change the form of production, which is quite effective.
There is the need only to provide the consumers with the means of
claiming what they want from production, as long as that production is
capable of providing it. To
this end, Social Credit calls for a regulation of the monetary system to
put money in keeping with the facts of production and to put this money
at the service of consumers. A
certain quantity of money already reaches the consumer through wages and
salaries for accomplished work, or through the sale of products on the
market, or through the income derived from investments. But nothing
ensures the consumers at all times of a sufficient global purchasing
power to buy the globally offered production. Besides, the money must be
removed from a tutelage which taxes it at its origin, and which imposes
on it a term of duration, without any relation to the duration of the
production capacity. The
monetary propositions formulated by Major Clifford Hugh Douglas, the
Scottish engineer who conceived the Social Credit Doctrine, seem
effective ways to correct the monetary system, without collisions,
without disrupting the present methods of production, without
suppressing the pursuit of profit which stimulates production, without
the least harm to personal freedom, and without undue interference into
economic activities by the State. We
can therefore summarize the monetary propositions of Social Credit: 1.
The national control of money; 2.
A national credit account, reflecting the country's real wealth at all
times; 3.
The issuance of any new necessary money for consumption, in two ways,
complementing each other. a)
By a national dividend to each citizen, thus recognizing the right of
each one to a common inheritance, a factor of production; b)
By an adjustment of prices to balance definitely the global purchasing
power with the offered production, avoiding all inflation as well as all
deflation. |